Working with Gender in Rural Afghanistan: Experiences from Norwegian-funded NGO projects

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Working with Gender in Rural Afghanistan:

Experiences from Norwegian-funded NGO projects

Norad Report 10/2014

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Responsibility for the contents and presentation of findings and recommendations rests with the study team. The views and opinions Frontpage image:

Photo: Aga Khan Foundation.

Afghan women attending ski instructor course.

Photo: Ken Opprann

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation P.O. Box 8034 Dep, NO-0030 OSLO

Ruseløkkveien 26, Oslo, Norway Phone: +47 23 98 00 00 Fax: +47 23 98 00 99 ISBN 978-82-7548-745-0 ISSN 1502-2528

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Torunn Wimpelmann Arne Strand

Desk study

Working with Gender in Rural Afghanistan:

Experiences from Norwegian‐funded NGO projects

September 2014

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Abbreviations and glossary

ACTED Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development AKF Aga Khan Foundation

CBO Community Based Organisation CBSG Community Based Saving Groups CDC Community Development Council CMI Chr. Michelsen Institute

DACAAR Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees GBV Gender Based Violence

GoA Government of Afghanistan

LNGO Local non‐ governmental organisation Mahram Male escort

NAC Norwegian Afghanistan Committee NCA Norwegian Church Aid

NGO Non‐ governmental organisation

NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation NRC Norwegian Refugee Council

NOK Norwegian Kroner

NSP National Solidarity Programme SHG Self Help Group

Shura Local council

TOR Terms of Reference WB World Bank

WRC Women Resource Centre YDC Youth Development Centre USD US Dollar

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Executive summary

This study was commissioned by NORAD upon the request of the Norwegian Embassy in Kabul in order to review gender aspects of six large rural development projects in Afghanistan. The projects were supported by the Norwegian government between 2010 and 2013, and implemented by six different non‐governmental organisations (NGOs). More specifically, the terms of reference of the study called for a review of current literature on gender and development in Afghanistan, a discussion of how the six organisations conceptualised and prioritised gender and organised their interventions in order to achieve gender‐related objectives, and an assessment of the relevance, sustainability and results of the NGOs’ gender work. Emphasis was placed on generating useful and practical insights regarding promising experiences that might serve as an input for future programming.

Due to security restrictions, the study was conceptualised as desk study with telephone and skype interviews taking place from Norway, but given the presence of one of the consultants in Kabul, interviews in the Afghan capital were carried out. The scope of the study nonetheless excluded field‐

based research and the team was encouraged to identify issues that might be explored through a later fieldwork based study.

Regarding the organizations ‘gender profiles’ the study noted that in many ways, the organizations were quite similar. One of the organizations; the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, appeared to have a higher number of female staff than the other organizations.

The study also looked at how is gender mainstreaming understood and operationalized in the projects. Based on a distinction between transformative and integrative mainstreaming, the study found that the most prevalent way that ‘gender mainstreaming’ has been conceptualized is integrative; proceeding from the objective that women should be included both as beneficiaries, and as participants consulted in needs assessments. In order to achieve this, staff would monitor beneficiary numbers, and frequently design parallel /segregated activities that would ensure gender balance through enabling women to participate in program activities without radically transgressing predominant gender roles. However, in some areas there were also efforts to include larger numbers of women in more male‐dominated fields. Occasionally, mainstreaming also meant examining the projects resources allocated to men versus women. Like in most other settings, gender mainstreaming in its most radical version ‐ the idea that all development programs should have the transformation of gender relations as a core objective was largely absent.

The team found that three out of a total of 22 project components specifically targeted women or gender equality. In addition it identified a number of smaller sub‐components that were targeted in this sense. The ToR raised the question of the relative effectiveness of targeted versus mainstreaming approaches in the current setting in Afghanistan. However, team found it more useful to distinguish between transformative and integrative approaches, whether within projects as a whole or within targeted approaches. The report argues that there is a risk that even targeted approaches become too neutralized and possible even a way of improving the gender balance sheet as a whole by having something ‘special’ for women. Such ‘special things’ should be aiming for some kind of strategic change, (thus eventually making themselves redundant) and constantly assess whether they are being ambitious enough, as well as thorough and of high quality.

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The study zoomed in on women’s income generation projects in order to examine the relevance, sustainability, results and promising practices of gender related activities. The review found interesting differences in how projects were conceived and implemented; to what extent they aimed and succeeded in expanding women’s control over the value chain, whether it was possible to mobilize women in small collectives with regular meetings and to what extent women were able to obtain a sustainable income. The findings suggest that organizations should consider whether they can be more strategic, focused and ambitious in their work with women’s economic empowerment.

Moreover, as a general point, the team would like to suggest that what ‘works’ in Afghanistan when it comes to promoting women’s rights cannot be framed in terms of a general recipe across sectors.

Often, working through religious idioms and local leaders has been presented as one panacea, counterposed to an ‘externally imposed’ or culturally insensitive intervention. However, as illustrated by the case study of women’s income generation projects, it is the specifics of how and whether an intervention is informed by and adjusted to the particular constraints facing women in a particular area ‐‐ and has a realistic strategy for how to overcome them ‐‐ that is the key to ‘success’.

Recommendations and issues for further exploration

Given the limited scope of the study in the light of the number of organizations included, the team has been hesitant to offer prescriptive recommendations regarding project design and implementation, or organizational structures or practices. Instead the review has identified issues that merit consideration and questions to be explored further through field based study.

At the organizational level; organizations could consider whether there might be any of NAC’s practices of supporting female staff that might be worth replicating‐ such as free child care. They could also consider how they could incorporate more expansive ways of measuring gender equality in their activities, for instance by examining the resources allocated to male and female beneficiaries and being more systematic in how they measure change, for instance by introducing more pre and post assessments of changes in attitudes, distribution of resources and decision‐making power.

Regarding programs that works with women’s income generation organizations should consider a horizontal rather than vertical approach. Instead of attempting to get a broad coverage, it might be more effective to focus on one or two particular products and systematically expand women’s ability to collectively produce and to strengthen their links with markets at the regional, national and international level. The latter is important both to cut out middlemen and to ensure that products are standardized and competitive. Moreover, as funds decrease, a more strict business logic based on calculation of profits must be applied. There is nothing wrong with subsidizing emerging sectors, women entrepreneurs included, but it should take place in a strategic and –literally‐ calculated fashion. Market analysis and a more systematic recording and analysis of profits should be obvious components. In addition, attention must be paid to women’s working conditions and ability to control their own income. It also appears that most of the organizations could review the scope for engaging more women outside of their conventional home‐based roles.

At this point additional topics for further, more field‐based inquiries include the following:

 women’s mobility and ability to interface with outsiders in selected project locations; (with a focus on actual practices rather than the opinions of community leaders)

 to what extent and how women can take control over earnings and their working conditions

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 a more systematic mapping of the social aspects of the savings and self‐help groups; under what conditions might women’s solidarity be generated by these groups and what concrete actions do they lead to?

 the projects should be reviewed in relation to how they complement and coordinate with government institutions and other cooperatives and organizations

 a more in‐depth processes oriented study of how organizations obtain and maintain access, perhaps focusing on Faryab in order to determine how much difference prolonged engagement with community elders can make.

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1. Introduction and purpose of the study

This study is commissioned by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) for the purpose of reviewing the gender aspects of six large rural development projects in Afghanistan supported by the Norwegian government between 2010 and 2013, and implemented by six different non‐governmental organisations (NGOs).

The rationale of the study, as stated in the Terms of Reference (ToR) is as follows;

Gender is an important cross cutting issue in Norwegian development assistance in general and, due to the special conditions, in Afghanistan in particular. Gender considerations are part of most of the development projects, but vary in terms of specificity from agreement to agreement, and between the different channels of funding.

NGOs are recognized as an important development channel for the Norwegian Embassy in Kabul, and are expected to continue to be so over the coming years as alternatives or complements to aid channeled through national government programs. All the six NGOs included in this study; Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), Danish Committee for Aid to Afghanistan (DACAAR), the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), Norwegian Church Aid (NAC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)¹ have extensive experience of working in Afghanistan with some working exclusively in the country and others internationally. Some of the organizations have received Norwegian assistance since the early 1980s and others only since 2007 or later.

This review is taking place at a crucial time for Afghans, marked by major uncertainty over the future and the extent of international assistance. International forces are drawing down their presence during 2014, and insecurity has gradually increased in many parts of Afghanistan. This has worsened the working conditions for NGOs and reduced access to several areas. They, and international donors, are also affected by the uncertainty over future political stability due to fraud allegations made over the presidential elections. All these factors might affect assistance levels and implementation capacity and possibility over the coming years, including for gender assistance.

Due to security restrictions, this study has primarily been a desk‐review, which has imposed certain limitations on the study, explained in more detail below.

Purpose and scope of the study

According the Terms of Reference (ToR), the purpose of this study is to:

…systematically collect information about the gender work of these NGOs and to compare them and to the extent possible (provided this is a desk review) assess their relevance, sustainability and results. The main intention is to produce experience based information as basis for future work of NGOs in particular and for other actors in general, in similar cultural, religious and socio‐economic settings. The main questions are in short: What works? Are

1 For a brief description of each NGO, see Annex 3

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there “promising practises”? Can they serve as input to future programming for gender equality for the six NGOS and others?

The ToR lists 10 points for the scope of work (see ToR in annex 5 for more details), including a brief discussion of current reviews and research related to development activities aiming at improving women’s situation and rights in rural areas of Afghanistan, a description of how the NGOs gender priorities are reflected in organizational and human resource policies, and a review of how the organizations incorporate historical, social and religious context in their gender programming. The ToR further asks for a description of how the six projects included in the study are organized in order to reach gender related objectives, and how gender issues are reported on. Moreover, the review should identify activities where gender is mainstreamed as well as activities targeting women or gender in particular, and assess the importance attached to them within the projects as a whole. If possible these activities should be assessed according to relevance, sustainability, and results. Finally, the study should search for what the ToR calls “promising practices” among both mainstreamed and targeted approaches and try to explain how and why the NGO in question has developed such approaches in the first place.

According to the ToR, the main sources of information for the review should be:

 Plans and Annual Reports from the 6 NGOs for the agreements covering the years 2010‐

2013, 8 plans, 18 annual reports and some reports covering only parts of 2013 and a number of final reports.

 Reports from a limited group of other NGOs operating in Afghanistan, and which are focusing on gender issues in integrated rural development.

 Specific gender related papers, plans, strategies for, or by, the NGOs, either at HQ, national or project levels.

 Plans, studies, reviews and evaluations of the 6 NGOs.

 Other relevant documents as identified by the review team.

Methodology

The review team has consisted of Torunn Wimpelmann and Arne Strand, both from Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI).² As Wimpelmann was based in Kabul for a part of the review period has she been able to undertake interviews in person with NGO staff in Kabul, rather than by phone/skype as envisaged in the ToR. In addition to the material listed in the ToR, we have included some reports from other gender related projects of the same NGOs and some more general literature, evaluations and reviews on gender and on Afghanistan.

The team have primarily focused on the six projects listed in the ToR. However, in two instances we found it relevant to include other Norwegian funded‐projects, a Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) project focusing specifically on women’s empowerment that was an extension and expansion upon the initial project and a Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC) project supporting female self‐help groups.

The inclusion of these projects was related to the fact that team decided to select a focus area which would allow for a degree of comparison across six rather different approaches and project types. As

2 Strand worked with NAC from 1988 to 1991 and with NCA from 1993 to 1997. He has in recent years

undertaken a number of reviews and assessments for NORAD and for international, Norwegian and Afghan NGOs, including NAC and NCA and some of NCA’s Afghan Partner NGOs.

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set out in the inception report submitted early in the review, this led the team to identify income generation projects targeting women as an activity undertaken by all the NGOs included in this study and thus suitable for comparative exploration. This focus did not exclude consideration of other projects and types of activities, but it allowed for a degree of comparison and possibilities to identify promising practices that might be of use for all involved NGOs. In some ways, these projects also served as an entry point to an understanding of broader practices and approaches to gender in the organizations as whole.

Both team members reviewed NGO plans and reports and selected literature, including more generally on rural development and on micro‐finance. Wimpelmann conducted interviews in person with key staff of all six NGOs, including management, program staff, gender advisors and human resource personnel and some instances field staff. Additional email exchanges with the NGOs and some follow‐up interviews to clarify details from earlier meetings and to obtain further information followed. Wimpelmann also undertook phone or skype interviews with field based projects staff and a small number of beneficiaries, sometimes with the use of an interpreter.

The team encountered four methodological constraints that should be pointed out;

1. With hindsight, the team somewhat underestimated the number of staff interviews necessary in order to go into some depth about the project activities as well as organisational gender policies and experience. More than 45 interviews (phone, skype and face to face) were conducted with more than 60 informants (see Annex 1). This limited the time available to interview project participants, as well as external stakeholders such as government officials and head quarter staff outside of Afghanistan.

2. For the phone/skype interviews with beneficiaries we noted that NGO field staff at times were present in the same room as the interviewees. This limited the possibility to explore personal reflections around the project and potential negative experiences. Such issues are also challenging to explore through phone interviews as they require a certain degree of trust and personal rapport to be established.

3. The fact that the review took place over the summer ( early June to early August) caused some challenges in the form of holiday absence of senior NGO staff leading to a delay in receiving updated information and project details as requested. That was also the case when we requested interviews with key gender experts working in i.e. the World Bank to obtain independent views on rural development and gender assistance to Afghanistan.

4. As a primarily desk‐based review, covering six organisations and with limited to no interaction with project participants, the study is cautious regarding the drawing of definite conclusions. We have rather attempted to bring out a more detailed comparison of one type of intervention, income‐generating activities for women, to make the findings as comparative and practical as possible. In accordance with the ToR we have therefore suggested issues that will benefit from a more field based study that would include a broader sample of field staff, beneficiaries and local (and central) authorities to enable a full assessment of relevance, sustainability and results, as well as the organizations overall gender work.

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2. Women, gender equality and rural development in Afghanistan: some key perspectives

Framing the issue

While ‘Afghan women’ has remained high on the international agenda for more than a decade, there are many different ways in which the issue is approached and understood amongst donors and Afghans themselves. One fault line runs between ideals of women’s empowerment as individuals and or as a gender group, versus collective improvements as part of family and kinship groups. For those who emphasize the latter, the notion that women in Afghan society are structurally discriminated against or even disadvantaged might be based on a Westernized ideal of what women as a whole should aspire to and must therefore be rejected. Afghan women, it is argued realize themselves through family and collective achievements, and their limited public appearances deflect from the fact that they exercise influence through and enjoys respects in, private domains. Others dismiss this as misguided cultural relativism, arguing that unequal access to material resources and public spaces construct women as dependents of male family members.³

Even if the general idea that gender equality is a problem in Afghanistan is accepted there are numerous ways to approach it: Many interventions focus on reaching and including women, without necessarily directly confronting gender relations or significantly attempting to alter them, exemplified by home‐based activities. Other programs might indirectly attempt to change the scope of what women can do by offering women more access to employment, credit and education. Very few interventions would confront gender relations head on‐ for instance by mobilizing for changes in land and property ownership, sexual and reproductive rights, divorce and custody rights etc. As elsewhere, gender mainstreaming has constituted a core strategy in post‐2001 Afghanistan. And like in other settings, critics argue that gender mainstreaming has become diluted from its original transformative agenda which made gender equality a core objective of all development, to a more technical exercise that, at worst, means integrating women into development activities but without changing gender roles(Desai 2005; Larson 2008).

In this report we classify activities according to three main categories. –Non‐gender activities do not contain any explicit gender dimensions or direct inclusion of women (although we might distinguish between exclusionary activities that targeted men exclusively such as support to male farmers, and more neutral infrastructure projects such as electrification which may have more benefits to women). Mainstreamed activities mean that there has been an attempt to include gender considerations in the activity or program as a whole. Mainstreamed activities can be further subdivided into two types; integrative, where there has been an effort to include women on par with or in parallel to men without trying to transform predominant gender relations, and transformative, where the activity or program as whole has the transformation of gender relations as one of its core objectives. Finally, targeted activities are those which have been designed especially to focus on gender. Again, it is useful to distinguish between two types, ‘women’s components’ which are activities specially designed for women for them to be able to take part without transgressing

3 For a discussion see Kabeer, N., A. Khan, et al. (2011). Afghan values or women’s rights? Gendered narratives

of continuity and change in urban Afghanistan IDS Working Paper 387. Brighton, Institute for Development Studies.

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predominant gender roles, and transformative, which are particular interventions designed specifically to transform gender relations (whether working exclusively with women or with both sexes).

Table 1. Categorizing development interventions according to their gender approach Non‐gender

Exclusive

Men are the only beneficiaries

Neutral

Both men and women are (indirect) beneficiaries Mainstreamed

Integrative

Women are included in the activity or program, although within predominant gender roles

Transformative All interventions are systematically designed and assessed against how they contribute to the

transformation of gender relations

Targeted

‘Women’s component’

Activities especially designed for women to take part without transgressing gender roles

Transformative

Activities especially designed to transform gender relations

It should be noted that the goal is not necessarily that all activities should be at the transformative end of the scale. Rather, from a gender equality perspective what is important is to be conscious about the different approaches and their implications, and to constantly reassess whether there is scope from transitioning from one approach to another. In Afghanistan – for a number of complex reasons; the instrumentalization of women’s rights for other purposes, the ways in which ‘gender’

has been made to represent a symbol of foreign interference and the insecurity and militancy of recent years ‐‐ the attractions of the more ‘neutral’ integrative / women’s component approaches have been particularly strong. Compared to other regional countries, Afghanistan also has less of an organized women’s movement. This is not surprising given decades of war and the years of Islamist rule, but it has probably meant that there have been fewer calls and constituencies for a more radical approach from within the country.

Women in agriculture and rural livelihoods

Female livelihoods, both and rural and urban, and women’s economic empowerment more generally have largely been less of a focus within development interventions in Afghanistan since 2001, with legal protection, political participation, health and education taking presence when it comes to women or gender ‐oriented activities (AREU 2013). Whilst women are certainly involved in

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agriculture (including livestock and horticulture) in Afghanistan, they tend to remain at the micro‐

scale, non‐ monetized end of the production and their contributions are thus not formally recognized or directly remunerated. Apart from reproductive work (food preparation, child rearing, cleaning, and caring for elder and sick family members) women play important roles in looking after livestock (an estimated 93 percent of poultry farmers are women) and dairy and egg production, as well as weeding, processing, harvesting and post‐harvest work such as threshing and cleaning (World Bank 2014). In the northern and central regions women produce carpets and kelims, activities that primarily takes place within the home. Women’s involvement and activities varies between regions and among different ethnic groups, and to what extent women takes part in agricultural work outside the house – or boundaries set around a cluster of houses, also depends on the economic status of her family, with women from poorer families and smaller farms tending to work more in the fields. It should also be noted that with the onset of a more cash‐based economy, and decreasing plots sizes, many families are finding it impossible to sustain themselves in rural Afghanistan. As a result, many men have migrated to Iran or the Gulf for work, leaving women increasingly in charge of all aspects of agricultural production in some areas (NAC unpublished document).

However, with the exception of some widows, women generally do not own land (Grace 2004) and, given the strong sanctions against female visibility and mobility women often do not take part in market transactions of the produces they contribute to. As a result women are often unable to make estimations of profit‐ including how important their own labor is compared to raw materials etc. and decide over the use of such income. At the same time, women’s economic participation has been something of an understudied topic in Afghanistan and there appears to be considerable regional and even district level variations in women’s activities and to what extent they hold influence on different types of investments – or financial resources brought into the family.⁴

Aid programs focusing on women in agriculture and livestock have targeted women through ‘training on input supply, extension services, weed control, harvesting, post‐harvest processing, packaging and kitchen ‘gardening’ (World Bank 2014). From what the team can gather, programming in Afghanistan have only to a limited extent incorporated the changes associated with large scale male labor migration and associated increases in female agricultural participation, although this may now slowly be changing. ⁵ Instead, aid projects has often proceeded based on traditional gender roles, with women receiving support for ‘inside’ activities such as kitchen gardening and poultry rearing.

In the field of income generation for rural women more generally, a number of micro‐finance programs have also been established. By 2013, the World Bank estimated that there were 400,000 microfinance clients in Afghanistan, out of which 38% were women. While micro‐finance programs have generally been viewed positively by women participants, studies have cautioned that they appear to have been more successful in channeling money through the women in order to increase household economic status (which would go a long way in explaining family and male approval of such programs) than to systematically address women’s strategic gender needs or ‘empower’ them

4 For instance, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock representatives report in interview with AREU that women

in Kunar and Nuristan undertake ploughing and other activities normally associated with men. Ganesh, L., M.

Kohistani, et al. (2013). Women’s Economic Empowerment in Afghanistan 2002‐2012. Information Mapping.

Kabul Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, p. 42

5 In an internal NAC document on gender and agriculture (NAC, unpublished document) the organization states

its intention to proceed from the assumption that women are active in all aspects of agriculture and to involve women more actively in farming interventions.

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in a broader sense. In some instances, loan money are simply handed over to the husband or other male family members. While this can improve women’s status in the household temporarily, experiences from Afghanistan and beyond has suggested that programs that provide a platform for women to meet, increase their knowledge and skills in a meaningful way, and improve their decision‐

making power are more likely to have an impact on women’s relative situation (World Bank 2014:

117). But another study also suggests that micro‐credit programs are more likely to have this kind of impact when women’s roles are less circumscribed in the first place. (Ganesh, Kohistani et al. 2013:

61)

Some context

Out of the 6 different NGOs, 5 are self‐implementing while the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) works through 13 Afghan partner organizations. Four of the NGOs have activities in Faryab where Norway had their Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) based until 2012, a mixed ethnic province with an Uzbek majority. With the exception of NCA engaging in Uruzgan and NRC in Nangarhar, all other project activities are implemented in provinces located in central and north Afghanistan and primarily inhabited by non‐ Pashtuns.

These areas are in general more receptive to the involvement of women in decision making and economic activities than many Pashtun dominated areas, and should as such offer an easier opening to women’s participation in development projects. There are still differences between the provinces/areas that need to be taken into account when analyzing the implementation of the projects included in our selection. An interesting dimension noted in an NCA report is the two types of resistance a project targeting women in Faryab was met with.⁶ One is communal resistance (due to cultural norms and traditions) but the other is governmental and in the form of extensive bureaucratic procedures, though these might well be triggered by the same norms and traditions.

A second factor is that the security situation has worsened in many of these provinces from 2010 and until today, and thus posed increased security risks and operational challenges to the NGOs. Direct threats to beneficiaries and project staff is one type of risk, fighting causing challenges for staff movement or bringing in supplies is another. Faryab has had a very negative development over the last year, Uruzgan and Nangarhar is generally challenging, the situation in Badakshan has worsened in 2014, Bamyan has reported some incidents of concern and there have been more security incidents reported from the other provinces as well. Travelling along the main roads has become more hazardous due to the increase in attacks from Taliban and other groups in opposition the Government of Afghanistan but also due to how groups and militias affiliated (or at least supported) by the Afghan government and international forces operate.

6 NCA (2013) Periodic Report for Promoting Women Engagement and Participation, 25th January 2013

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3. Gender organizational policies

This section offers a brief overview of the gender policies of the organizations included in the review.

While it was far beyond the timeframe of the review to provide a systematic assessment of organizational practices when it comes to gender, we have compiled a brief overview of the NGOs’

gender policies, female staff levels, gender strategies and designated gender positions.

When it came to stated organizational policies regarding (female) staff the organizations were quite similar. All had the standard 3 months maternity leave and provisions for mahrams (although there was divergent views on whether the use of mahrams (male escorts) should be encouraged or not).

Only a minority of the organizations had on‐site, staffed child care facilities. As an increasing number of urban younger families opt out of the extended family model and move into smaller apartments, childcare provision, especially for more junior staff positions with lower salary levels, would seem important.

All the organizations reported challenges with recruiting qualified female Afghan staff, which is largely caused by structural factors; competition over a limited pool of female professionals, and in the countryside, restrictions on women working. AKF and NRC have initiated small‐scale internships for women, although there is an overall lack of experienced and qualified women within older age groups, especially outside the fields of medicine and technical training. Two of the organizations (NAC and NRC) stated that they routinely practiced direct affirmative action when it came to recruitment‐ women would need two‐thirds of the qualification levels of male candidates to be recruited.

NAC has a significantly greater female staff ratio than the other organizations; at 36 percent this is considerably higher than the others ranging from 12.5 to 16 percent. One reason for this might be that NAC employs a great number of health staff, many of whom are women, although the management emphasized that NAC places great weight on accommodating and supporting female staff, for instance by reimbursing documented childcare expenses and hiring relatives on a monthly basis to look after the children of female fieldworkers overnight.

Only two of the organizations (ACTED and NCA) have gender strategies in the form of a written document at the country level. It is unclear however to what extent these strategies shape the organizations’ practices. NCA’s country representative stated that their gender strategy, which was developed by a consultant in 2008 was not in use. NAC stated that they are in the process of developing a gender strategy and anticipated it to be ready in September 2014. NRC has a global gender strategy, but seemingly do not have plans to develop one at the country level. However its global gender strategy reverberates at the country level; for instance NRC reported that their global policy require them to have an equal number of male and female beneficiaries in education and this it practiced in its vocational training program in Afghanistan. Other organizations also operated with targets of various levels, and had gender checklists for project design which included specific questions on women’s workloads, and sometimes their access to resources and decision‐making.

Due to time constraints, and in accordance with the emphasis on focusing on extracting promising experiences, the team was unable to systematically assess how such tools are being applied at the organizational level.

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Although the study could not map this in full, interviews suggested that there were few coordination forums for NGOs working with gender and rural development. One senior staff member argued that gender‐focused forums for implementing agencies did not really exist, a coordination group chaired by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) appeared to be defunct, and as implementing agencies they did not attend donor coordination forums. However, ACTED’s gender advisor reported to be the chair of the gender working group for the National Solidarity Program (NSP) implementing partners.

In general, however the lack of coordination mechanisms for NGOs working with gender and rural development was confirmed and identified as a gap by other informants. ⁷

Table 2. Organizational gender profiles at a glance

Gender policy Female staff Gender strategy document

Gender advisors/units/focal

points ACTED

Yes – Combined strategy and policy articulates ACTEDs views and offer guidelines. Action points;

comprehensive gender analysis at planning stage, women to be consulted directly, gender unit to be established, risk analysis for women to be carried out, increase female‐

targeted programs, as well as expansion of ‘traditional female activities’, targets to be set for female staff, opens for affirmative action. Separate and detailed sexual harassment policy

An estimated 200 out of 500 in Faryab. ⁸

Yes; (for 2012‐2013) Encompasses both programs and HR policy.

Sets out the process in which gender is to be integrated through project cycle, and the particular measures to be taken within programmatic fields.

Yes, gender unit (national staff) and 7 gender focal points.

AKF

Yes‐( effective from Jan 2013, but previous policy also) states commitment to gender equality,

monitoring of gender objectives and outcomes, build staff capacity on gender equality, sets out responsibilities of various management and staff levels, refers to sexual harassment.

Out of 1770 national staff, 286 (16 %)are female. 25 are in senior positions Out of 77 international staff; 23 are women, including 3 directors.

No Yes, 2 person gender unit

(expatriate) 3 regional gender advisors (national), gender focal points in most sector teams.

7 As such the field seems to differ from other areas such as gender based –violence, gender and protection and

gender and legal reform, where several coordination groups ( such as the gender based violence protection sub‐cluster) are or have been active

8 National level numbers for female staff were requested, but not obtained by the time of the submission of

the final report, although they are considered to be much lower than in Faryab. They will be obtained prior to the submission of the final report. The total staff of ACTED Afghanistan is around 900.

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DACAAR

Yes, (2013.)

850 staff, 13 percent female. Few women in leadership positions

No One gender advisor ( vacant at the time of the field research but due to be filled shortly)

NAC

Yes ( HR policy) 36 percent female staff.

Several women in senior positions

In progress – to be completed in September

One gender focal point, based in Jaghori, Ghazni ( national)

NCA

Separate sexual exploitation and abuse policy (adjusted from NCA’s global template)

Out of 56 employees‐ 7 are women (12.5 %) 2 of these are expatriate. Female national staff includes 2 program officers, 1 finance assistant and two cleaners.

Yes (for 2008‐2015) Fairly comprehensive strategy which covers project cycle, HR, sexual harassment.

Envisages a number of assessment on how programs affect women, establishment of indicators etc. But not in use, according to country director.

Gender coordinator in Kabul (national)

NRC

No specific policy but Code of Conduct includes sexual harassment etc. According to HR affirmative action is practiced when female candidates are 2/3 as qualified as male candidates

77 female national staff out of 420 (18 %)

No Noone in Afghanistan‐ just in

HQ

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4. Inclusion, allocation, transformation? How do the projects incorporate gender and women’s rights?

The ToR of this study asks how women’s rights and gender equality are included in the projects, how such questions are reported on and the relative importance given to gender related activities within the projects as a whole. In the table below we have attempted to provide a ‘visual’ overview of how gender and women are included in the projects under study, based on how the project reports described the project activities. In accordance with the framework set out in section 2, components and activities are classified into 3 broad categories; gender neutral, mainstreamed and targeted.

It should be noted that in practice, drawing the line between ‘mainstreamed’ and targeted interventions is actually somewhat tenuous, given that Afghanistan is such a gender segregated society. Since many of the activities men and women perform in their daily life are more or less exclusive to their gender, designing interventions that include both men and women in the same activities (even if not necessarily in the same space) is not always realistic or considered desirable.

Thus, in rural Afghanistan for instance, women might receive support for kitchen gardening whilst men might be engaged in ‘outside’ agricultural work. The question of whether this becomes a special or targeted women component or a case of women being ‘included’ together with or in parallel to men ultimately becomes difficult to determine in any objective or scientific way. In this report we have categorized agricultural activities that does not have a male equivalent, such as kitchen gardening, poultry farming and tree sapling as ‘targeted’ and onsite vocational programs including both men and women as ‘mainstreamed’ even though these vocational training programs often have different courses for men and women. However these categorizations are pragmatic and not necessarily set in stone.

The table below aims to provide a sense of the six projects listed in the ToR and how women /gender are included in them, as well as the relative scope of targeted activities within the broader project. ⁹It also illustrates how gender (in the sense of gender disaggregated beneficiary numbers) is reported on. Given that the projects are different in what kind of activities and focus they include, and that reporting formats also differ, a more quantitatively accurate presentation (which in some way could precisely reflect the budgetary scale of all activities /components relative to each other within and across the six organizations) was not feasible. What the table provides therefore, is more of an approximate impression.

9 It should be noted that the table is not representative of the organizations’ total activities, but presents a

gender breakdown of the six projects included in the ToR. For instance, there are other projects that

specifically target women or gender equality, such as NAC midwife training, NCA’s new gender empowerment program in Faryab and ( in parts) NRCs legal assistance program to internally displaced people and returnees.

The two former are funded in their entirety by Norway.

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Table 3. Key project activities and how they incorporate and report on gender

Organizations &

key project components

 When overall activity is specifically designed directed towards women or gender equality‐ marked in red.

 When activities explicitly include both men and women, the women number

‐marked in blue.

 When there is no information about gender of beneficiaries in reporting‐

marked in black

ACTED (NOK 120 mill)

A Agriculture and livestock

B Access to capital & business networks

C Health and hygiene

D Governance

E Youth training and mobilisation

Generic training to various CBOs; farmer organisations, water user groups. ToT to ‘key farmers, basic veterinaries (6:30 women) and water associations. Demonstration plots established by ‘key farmers’. Block grant for each district for water infrastructure (USD 287.000) Kitchen gardens for 1200 women; seeds and basic equipment. Tree planting;

68.000 trees given to vulnerable farmers.

Basic veterinaries (20 percent female) given starting kits of 200 USD. Vaccinations distributed

8 poultry farms established, each for 8 women. Construction of building and distributions of 200 hens.

Cashmere goats distributed to 160 people; 60 women

Organisational support, training block grants and business plans to UC (farmer’s groups) and 173 all‐female self‐help groups (SHG) and 4 SHG Federations.

Establishment of health promotion networks in 3 provinces. (49 % women) Training session include house to house and family planning as topic, health radio, water cleaning campaigns and water and disease surveillance.

Support to 4 types of community based groups through which other component work.

(Note: the majority of CBOs assessed (81%), including CDCs, had only between 0 to 10% female representation (49% had 0% levels of female representation))

Vocational training centers and youth development centers established, with literacy, supplementary vocational training and apprenticeship (separate topics for women) Sports promotion. 868 vocational trainees / graduates (198 women), 2670 graduates of YDC courses (588 female) , 16,780 literacy graduates (ca 9575 women), 160 Apprenticeship ( 8 women).

AKF (NOK 64 mill) A Human and institutional development

B Education

Institutional development of sub‐national government structures; CDC training on conflict resolution (male /female ratio 87/13), gender sensitisation, resource management, computer and proposal writing. Poverty analysis and wealth ranking, support to LNGOS, fellowship grants, 307 community based saving groups (CBSG) with with 874 male and 2897 female members, 3 conferences including women’s

development conference, various campaigns, LGNO micro‐grants.

Capacity building of MoE at province and district level; support to 290 PED/DED personnel for planning and management, capacity building /workshops to 1251 male and 28 female teachers, including one workshop on women in education, support to Teacher Training Colleges; teaching methodology training to faculty members (5 of 60 female)

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C Public health promotion

D Culture and tourism

E Alternative technologies

F Maternal and child health

G Electricity

Campaigns on health and hygiene; training on health hygiene and nutrition to

community workers ( 338, ca 102 female), community health workers ( 339), women’s groups ( 339), mullahs ( 170), members of student associations ( 363, 181 female ) teachers ( 377, 116 female) government staff ( 90).

Support to 6 festivals and events in Bamyan and Badakshan, support to 113 entrepreneurs and small scale infrastructure, support to 118 individuals to attend tourisms coordination meetings.18 youth ( 8 women) attended 3 month ski‐instructor course.

Distribution of 224 energy efficient stoves and support to 6 stove manufacturers and 34 stove installers.

56 health professionals and 88 community health workers including females received technical training on maternal and child health. 60 outreach visits by maternal and child health team. 53 midwives graduated, 50 deployed to home area. Establishment of 3 maternity waiting rooms.

Electrification – construction of power station and distribution network DACAAR ( NOK 77

mill)

A Water supply and sanitation

B Rural Development

Trained 233 government and NGO employees in water management (15 % women).

Ground water monitoring. Construction of 1062 waterpoints, with input from women through sanitation couples in 33 % of cases. Bio‐sand distribution to 184 126 beneficiaries. 3099 families supported in latrine construction. 2786 households received hygiene education by mixed‐sex team to ensure women access.

Training on new techniques and planting methods including fodder yield production, livestock management, 712 people employed in livestock sector. 255 farmers trained in water management, anti‐soil erosion measures; 656 hectare planted with pistachio, water harvesting and bioengineering.

Improvement on canals and culverts. 8 WCRS established. 3840 women took part in income generation activities. Training and support on market linkages, support for exhibitions. Food packages for vulnerable women; poultry and kitchen garden support 12 producers’ associations established with 2674 members. Training on natural resource management and business planning for producer associations VOs, MZs and CDCs. Government staff trained on cultivation, water management

NAC (NOK 45 mill) A Education

B Natural resource management

Vocational training of 80 women and 26 men in tailoring, and of 50 men in carpentry, car repairing or mobile phone repairing. Various training and workshops for teachers and staff; (1113 male, 168 females, 277 non‐specified). Construction of schools and playgrounds, distribution of equipment to schools, establishment of community based schools in 5 districts, University entrance exam training for 540 female and male students; Accelerated learning classes (ALC) for 50 over‐aged students supported.

Literacy, numeracy and life skills training of 450 women from 3 districts; literacy campaigns.

Construction of various irrigation and flood diversion infrastructure. Training of 450 women in vegetable production, 450 kitchen gardens established. 53 orchards established and 930 farmers and 2200 students trained. Potato demonstration plot established in 13 villages. 90,000 sapling purchased back from 450 women who received seed (Foster Mums) in tree plantation campaign, 78474 sapling distributed for re‐plantation.

Women trained in sapling production. 80 kilogram of seed distributed to 450 women.

1070 farmers supported with fodder seeds and 2200 poultry distributed to 160 families. 4 wheat experimental plot established and 120 farmers trained, 4 greenhouses established in 2012.

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C Health

Environmental awareness and cleaning campaigns involving local governance structures. Establishment or strengthening of farmer groups, training of 519 PTA members. Handover of 5 tree nurseries, 3 erosion protection projects and one plantation

Hygiene promotion, training of school and community health promoters as well as 7320 female community members (on health, hygiene and family planning).

Establishment and training of Family Health Action groups, 518 members trained on various topics including pregnancy care

NCA (NOK 105 mill)

A Women, peace and security

B Climate change mitigation

C Livelihood and trade

D Water, sanitation and hygiene

4,490 persons received literacy education in Faryab and Daikundi provinces (87.7 % female) female sessions sometimes combined with hygiene and peace awareness. 43 Women’s Human Rights Defenders Committees established in Faryab to combat discrimination and violence against women. 118 self‐help groups established and trained on management and entrepreneurship –Income generating activities emerging out of the groups include carpet weaving, beekeeping and ball making.

Establishment and training of mechanics for maintenance of 5 micro hydro power stations. Installation of solar panels, benefitting 7610 households, 58 persons trained as ‘engineers for installation and maintenance ( 28 men and 30 women)

Introduction of new agricultural and livestock production techniques. Support

establishment of self‐help groups, training on entrepreneurship and management and providing access to resources through loans. 17 farmers' cooperatives consisting of 6,130 members established and trained on new methods and techniques on agriculture and livestock. Specific training targeting women, on for example kitchen gardening to increase cultivation of vegetables.

Rehabilitation of wells, construction of latrines and washrooms, desalination plants, protection of water springs. Thirteen desalination plants installed, providing clean water to more than 5,100 families in eleven villages.

NRC ( NOK 38 mill)

A Youth education

B GBV prevention

The Youth Education Pack (YEP) was implemented from 27 centres In Nangarhar and Faryab and included several components. One was vocational training, a second literacy and numeracy, a third life skills and a forth support and child care. A total of 514 males and 688 females graduated, (77 % of the males students and 95 % of the female students)

The Gender‐Based Violence (GBV) project had five components; legal assistance to vulnerable women with 144 counselling cases, coordination with the Department of Women affairs, capacity development with local actors with 6 legal trainings for 77 males and 84 females, awareness raising in local communities for 643 males and 813 females and last livelihood training for 350 females.

Working with Gender in Rural Afghanistan: Experiences from Norwegian-funded NGO projects

Working with Gender in Rural Afghanistan:

Experiences from Norwegian-funded NGO projects

Working with Gender in Rural Afghanistan:

Experiences from Norwegian‐funded NGO projects

Table of Contents

Abbreviations and glossary

Executive summary

1. Introduction and purpose of the study

2. Women, gender equality and rural development in Afghanistan: some key perspectives

3. Gender organizational policies

4. Inclusion, allocation, transformation? How do the projects incorporate gender and women’s rights?